Paula Deen blames her blatant racism on being old [Update]

This week, it came out that Food Network, butter queen punchline, and all-around objectionable diabetes hypocrite Paula Deen admitted to using the N-word, made racially charged “jokes” and discussed the ways the word could be “not said in a mean way.” Really.

Today, Paula Deen Enterprises issued a statement to TMZ, which essentially blames her casual, horrible bigotry … on being old. The statement reads, in part: “[Paula] was born 60 years ago when America’s South had schools that were segregated, different bathrooms, different restaurants and Americans rode in different parts of the bus. This is not today.” There is no apology.

As TMZ also points out, she admitted to using the bad word in 1986, not the 1940s.

Paula Deen was born in 1947. Here is a list of other people who were born in that exact same year: Hillary Clinton, Larry David, David Letterman, Elton John, Carlos Santana. What a wonder that those people don’t go around casually uttering the N-word, given that they were born before the momentum of the civil rights movement.

In any event, as Mr. Ben Leventhal notes on Twitter, the question should now become: What will it actually take for Food Network to cut ties with Deen?

Even though she’s famously been called “the worst, most dangerous person to America” by Anthony Bourdain, Deen has remained one of the biggest and most marketable stars for the company, with three shows currently on the air (either new or rehashed episodes), and a virtual army of branded products ranging from knife sets and cookware to her own line of butter.

So far, Food Network has only said that it “will continue to monitor the situation.”